How Human and Organizational Performance Can Help Safety Professionals
May 23, 2022
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Andrea Baker, a human and organizational performance (HOP) expert, explores the paradigm shift needed in HSE. She explains the emergence of safety and the importance of prevention and mitigation. Andrea discusses why humans make mistakes and how to influence co-workers in adopting new safety procedures. She emphasizes learning about safety error reduction and highlights the challenges and rewards of implementing HOP principles. Andrea encourages viewing safety as a discipline and provides resources for further understanding.
HOP emphasizes fostering accountability in the workplace through creating an environment that values ownership and personal choice, rather than relying solely on disciplinary action.
HOP recognizes that traditional views of causality in human systems are flawed and emphasizes learning from workers and understanding work as it is actually done, enabling organizations to adapt and improve based on real-life conditions and worker insights.
HOP challenges traditional interpretations of accountability and discipline by promoting an environment of psychological safety rooted in personal choice, intrinsic motivation, and ownership. This cultivates a safety culture that encourages open communication, continuous improvement, and adaptive responses to real-life conditions.
Deep dives
The Importance of Accountability and Discipline in the Workplace
HOP recognizes the need for accountability and discipline in the workplace but emphasizes a different approach. Accountability is defined as a person's willingness to take responsibility for their actions and tell the story of their actions. It is a personal choice and cannot be forced or demanded by leaders. Creating an environment that fosters accountability is crucial, where employees feel ownership and value in their work, rather than just following procedures. On the other hand, disciplinary action is not meant to create accountability but is a tool to remove individuals who consistently fail to meet expectations. HOP encourages leaders to focus on fostering accountability rather than relying solely on punitive measures.
Understanding the Human and Organizational Performance Framework
The human and organizational performance (HOP) framework emerged from practices in the human performance space, building on concepts of error prevention and reduction. HOP recognizes that traditional views of causality in human systems are flawed, as they treat the system as ordered and predictable. In reality, organizations operate in a complex system where cause and effect are not fixed, but influenced by human behavior and a range of variables. HOP emphasizes learning from workers and understanding work as it is actually done (the blue line) rather than relying solely on written procedures (the black line). This approach enables organizations to adapt and improve their management systems based on real-life conditions and worker insights.
The Role of Accountability and Discipline in Safety Culture
HOP challenges the traditional interpretations of accountability and discipline, particularly in the context of safety culture. Rather than using disciplinary action as a means to enforce compliance, HOP emphasizes creating an environment of psychological safety where individuals are willing to take responsibility for their actions. This requires leaders to shift away from command and control structures and foster an atmosphere of ownership and autonomy. By promoting accountability rooted in personal choice and intrinsic motivation, organizations can cultivate a safety culture that encourages open communication, continuous improvement, and adaptive responses to real-life conditions.
Continuous improvement and learning in complex systems
Continuous improvement is crucial in building resilient systems. Traditional forms of continuous improvement may not be effective in complex systems, as they often rely on learning from outcomes or written documentation. In complex systems, it is essential to learn directly from the people who are hands-on in dealing with the day-to-day challenges. Tight feedback loops and adapting in real-time play a significant role in creating successful processes.
Complacency and risk normalization in organizations
Complacency can be viewed in two ways: loss of situational awareness and risk normalization. Loss of situational awareness or going on autopilot is a natural response in stable systems, as our brains conserve energy by relying on habit loops. Risk normalization is the acceptance of risk as part of routine operations. While complacency and risk normalization are aspects that cannot be completely controlled or eliminated, being aware of them can help manage their effects and allow for smarter system design and improvements.
In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Andrea Baker, a human and organizational performance (HOP) expert and consultant, and former safety professional who has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.
Andrea advocates a paradigm shift in our approach to HSE. She recognizes safety as an emergent property of the larger industrial system and explains that good performance is not the absence of inevitable human errors - but the presence of appropriate prevention and mitigation.
Combining psychology, sociology, and system design, Andrea explores why humans make mistakes and errors, and why safety systems are not predictable and will never be perfect. She emphasizes the importance of EHS professionals engaging with co-workers and provides practical advice on influencing their adoption of new safety procedures.
Andrea encourages HSE professionals to stop looking for faults in people or safety systems and become more interested in learning about how you want to be working in safety error reduction.
You can find out more about Andrea’s work by visiting:
